Tag: history
African music expert shifts gears after retiring from long-running VOA show
Leo Sarkisian was going to be an artist. Then his life took a major turn when he headed overseas, to remote corners of the world, to record previously unknown tribal music. He turned that into a decades-long run of hosting an African music show on Voice of America....
Les Miserables, Django Unchained hit wide release this weekend
Two movies that hit the big screen on Christmas will become widely available this weekend. Django Unchained, from Quentin Tarantino, and Les Miserables, a remake of the long-running musical, both are worth seeing, critic Rafer Guzman says, but neither are home runs....
Desert Storm's General Norman Schwarzkopf remembered
Celebrated Gen. H. Norman Schwarzkopf, commander of coalition forces during the 1991 Persian Gulf War, died Thursday at age 78. He suffered complications from pneumonia....
Hmong immersion program in Sacramento aims to educate, preserve
The Hmong culture has been a resilient one for centuries, enduring wars, genocide and mass migration. But the culture is under threat in the United States. A new elementary school immersion program in California aims to preserve it, and make it real to the children of immigrants....
London museum uncovers century-old recordings of family's holidays
More than 100 years ago, a London family man decided he wanted to record his family's holiday get-togethers. But rather than pull out an iPhone, he recorded audio on wax cylinders. Amazingly, those cylinders survived and are now in a London museum....
Iraqi-American man jailed for sending money to family in Iraq decade ago
After the Gulf War, sanctions prohibited Americans from sending money to Iraq. Iraqi-American Shakir Hamoodi broke those rules, however, when he found out his family in Iraq had miscarried, because they couldn't afford $10 antibiotics. Now he's in jail — almost 20 years after the fact....
Guaraldi's Charlie Brown Christmas soundtrack differentiates itself in noisy season
The soundstrack to A Charlie Brown Christmas certainly isn't new, but it does stand out. Christmas music is filled with jingle bells and snowmen, but not so with Vince Guaraldi's work. His soundtrack has been recognized and preserved in the National Recording Registry from the Library of Congress....
As Mayan 'end of the world' nears, Chinese especially interested in preparing
Various people around the world are looking to Dec. 21, the last day on an ancient Mayan calendar, as the end of the world. And while that theory has long been discredited, some people, especially in China, are madly preparing for that day....
Elvish, Hobbit language, perhaps most detailed of fictional languages
J.R.R. Tolkien's The Hobbit is out in theaters this weekend, and it will be a big screen celebration of the Elvish language. Tolkien spent years, some of them in World War I trenches, developing the language. It's perhaps the most elaborate fictional language ever....
Researchers document great damage to Syrian antiquities
While the loss of life in Syria continues to mount, there's another toll being extracted from the nation. While it's certainly less grave than the loss of life, it still represents a tragic loss to the country's, and even the world's history....
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